Tales of the Gold Monkey

[GOK]

OK so not a film but still moving pictures nevertheless. Who remembers it?
Anyone got the DVDs? What is the quality like?

 

[PADDY]

Don't you just love that comic book look...

Never heard of it. But, I love that comic book look, like something from Boy's Own, all very stiff upper lipped and 'daring do!' I'm a sucker for that as it's pure escapism (not unlike Double Ohhhhh Heaven!).

 

[GOK]

It was a TV series in the early 80s, set in the 1930s, about the adventures of a Bush pilot called Jake Cutter and his talking dog, One-Eye Jack! I used to watch it religiously!

http://www.goldmonkey.com/index.html

 

[LaMedicine]

Oh. I thought you meant this Golden Monkey.
Very popular in Asia.
It was aired by BBC in GB, too.

 

[Salv]

Oh. I thought you meant this Golden Monkey.
Very popular in Asia.
It was aired by BBC in GB, too.

Now that Monkey was quality viewing!

 

[GOK]

Monkey Magic!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Tales of the Gold Monkey was a fun little show, though nothing worth getting too worked up about. It and another series, "Bring Em Back Alive", were network TV's transparently obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark and its suddenly hip nineteen-thirties adventure concept. Both shows quickly vanished after one season. Tales of the Gold Monkey was the better show, but unless you were an impressionable kid (and I was already in my late 20s), it was really pretty low wattage... I have a feeling it would seem embarrasingly lame these days, with our higher standards.

 

[GOK]

You're probably right Doc - I was around 18 when we first got it over here, so I suspect my taste may have become more sophisticated now....or not! I still want to see it again though

 

[flat-top]

I have the DVDs. The quality is not bad. But yes, the show seems pretty silly now, very enjoyable (how could you not love Jack the dog??), but it didn't age too well! I'm glad I got them though.

 

[jake_fink]

I was a kid when this aired. I preferred Bring 'em Back Alive, though it was probably even more awful. I haven't seen BeBA in ages but I did see Tales of The Gold Monkey on DVD a a few years ago. The quality was crap and the show was just a very goofy, smug, campy Magnum PI set in the 30s. Really quite horrible.

Much better were Banyon, written by Bill McGivern - who wrote Big Heat (the main character was called Banyon in that, though no realtion to this one), and starrring the great Robert Forster.
Banyon at IMDB

Also City of Angels, starring Wayne Rogers as a Jake Gittes-type detective in 30s LA.
City of Angels on IMDB

Both series have been rebroadcast on television and have been available on possibly unofficial VHS tapes. Quality of the tapes I saw was poor, but the shows were not bad at all. Sheild, Sopranos, Deadwood quality: no; but good by 1970s tv standards.

 

[drafttek]

but unless you were an impressionable kid (and I was already in my late 20s), it was really pretty low wattage... I have a feeling it would seem embarrasingly lame these days, with our higher standards.

Former impressionable kid checking in here. I thought that was the best show EVER! I was 14 at the time and an airplane fanatic (still am, just not the 14 part). I haven't seen the show since and I don't think I want to. I'd rather it live on the way I remember it rather than go through the whole "H.R. Puff-n-stuff crushing of childhood memories" thing again (I can't believe that was my favorite show. Sid & Marty Croft were on some serious drugs).

 

[Serial Hero]

That was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I remember seeing the plane and set when my family took the Universal tour in the early 80’s.

My friend has all the episodes. Maybe I had built them up in my head too much over the years, but some of them are pretty bad, better left to fond childhood memories.

 

[GOK]

I'd rather it live on the way I remember it rather than go through the whole "H.R. Puff-n-stuff crushing of childhood memories" thing again (I can't believe that was my favorite show. Sid & Marty Croft were on some serious drugs).

OMG Pufnstuff was seriously frelled up dren! lol What were they on?

 

[Trampilot]

Oh yes! I remember this when it was screened on BBC1. Brilliant series (or so I remember as I must have been about ten).

I've been asking friends about this and it seems I was the only person watching it.

 

[GOK]

You're not alone, I get the same when I ask my chums if they remember Barbary Coast!

 

[Harp]

Prisoner

The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan, which ran in the US in
the 70s is a favorite series--surreal and odd but still timeless.

 

[The Wolf]

that was one I liked

I had missed the pilot of "... Gold Monkey" with Ron Moody. However, I used to watch the series and enjoyed. I wanted to find the pilot on DVD but after people talk about it I have a bad feeling the show won't live up to memories.
Now I can spend my time trying to find "THREE" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136672/ )on DVD.
I liked what I remember of "City of Angels" also. I heard the star, Wayne Rogers, wasn't happy with it.

Sincerely,
Tales of the Gold Wolf

 

[Gray Ghost]

I loved this show. Jack was my favorite. If he was asked a question, he would bark once for NO and bark twice for YES. He had a fake eye, that was a very valuable opal, I believe. Jake was always losing Jack's eye in poker games. The one problem that I had, is that Jake flew with the Flying Tigers. At the time the show was taking place, the Flying Tigers had not even been formed, but is was a good show anyway. I just loved the Goose that Jake flew. The mechanic for the plane also stared on The Black Sheep Squadron. Can not remember his name at this time. Wish they would bring a new adaption of the show back.

Gray Ghost

 

[carebear]

Just a point, Tales of the Gold Monkey predates Raiders by a couple years.

It has some fans, the COW folks would fit right in.

http://www.goldmonkey.com/

Original Title: Tales of the Brass Monkey
Changed a couple of months prior to the premiere. (Guess it didn't sound classy enough)

Original Choice to Play Jake: Bruce Boxleitner
His agent had a deal with CBS that gave the network a first shot at any of his clients. So Bruce Boxleitner did Bring 'em Back Alive (similar, yet highly inferior) instead, thus ensuring that he and Stephen Collins would be confused with each other for the rest of their lives.

ABC rejected the series in 1979 after Don Bellisario refused to update it. The network executives thought that no one would watch a show set in the 1930s. They quickly changed their minds after the enormous success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981.

Despite the Indiana Jones-clone label, Bellisario always insisted that he got his inspiration from the 1939 film, "Only Angels Have Wings", starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell and a young Rita Hayworth. It's obvious that he also was influenced by other classic films of the '30s and '40s such as "The Maltese Falcon", "To Have and Have Not" and "Casablanca" ("As Time Goes By" is played three times in the pilot).

After being grounded for almost nine years, "Cutter's Goose" flew again (sort of) in 1992 in an episode of Quantum Leap entitled 'Ghost Ship'. The episode, which was entirely set on the plane and heavily featured Gold Monkey stock footage, was co-written by Don Bellisario, who was also QL's (and of course Gold Monkey's) creator and executive producer.

The only primetime series in television history (as far as I know) to be ripped off and turned into a Disney cartoon. (There's no way that "TaleSpin" is a mere coincidence.)

 

[GOK]

I didn't realise that about the QL episode (love that too!). Thanks for posting that CB.

A I forgiven for trashing Serenity yet?